Malachi….Mal’akhi

"Wasn't Esau Jacob's
brother?" says Yahweh, "Yet I loved Jacob; 1:3but Esau I hated, and made his
mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the
wilderness." 1:4Whereas
Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste
places;" thus says Yahweh of Armies, "They shall build, but I will
throw down; and men will call them 'The Wicked Land,' even the people against
whom Yahweh shows wrath forever."

1:5Your eyes will see, and you will say,
"Yahweh is great--even beyond the border of Israel!"

1:6"A son honors his father, and a
servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a
master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests,
who despise my name. You say, 'How have we despised your name?' 1:7You offer polluted bread on my altar.
You say, 'How have we polluted you?' In that you say, 'Yahweh's table
contemptible.' 1:8When
you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn't that evil? And when you offer the
lame and sick, isn't that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be
pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?" says Yahweh of Armies.

1:9"Now, please entreat the favor of
God, that he may be gracious to us. With this, will he accept any of
you?" says Yahweh of Armies.

1:10"Oh that there were one among you
who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle
fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you," says Yahweh of
hosts, "neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 1:11For from the rising of the sun even
to the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations, and in
every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my
name is great among the nations," says Yahweh of Armies. 1:12"But you profane it, in that you
say, 'Yahweh's table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is
contemptible.' 1:13You
say also, 'Behold, what a weariness it is!' and you have sniffed at it,"
says Yahweh of Armies; "and you have brought that which was taken by
violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I
accept this at your hand?" says Yahweh.

1:14"But the deceiver is cursed, who has
in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a blemished thing;
for I am a great King," says Yahweh of hosts, "and my name is
awesome among the nations."

2:1"Now, you priests, this commandment
is for you. 2:2If
you will not listen, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my
name," says Yahweh of Armies, "then will I send the curse on you,
and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because
you do not lay it to heart. 2:3Behold,
I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of
your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. 2:4You will know that I have sent this
commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi," says Yahweh of
Armies. 2:5"My
covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him who he might
be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my
name. 2:6The law
of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He
walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. 2:7For the priest's
lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he
is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies. 2:8But you have turned aside out of the
way. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the
covenant of Levi," says Yahweh of Armies. 2:9"Therefore I have also made you
contemptible and base before all the people, according to the way you have
not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law. 2:10Don't we all have one father? Hasn't
one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his
brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 2:11Judah has dealt treacherously, and an
abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned
the holiness of Yahweh which he loves, and has married the daughter of a
foreign god. 2:12Yahweh
will cut off, to the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers,
out of the tents of Jacob, and him who offers an offering to Yahweh of
Armies. 2:13This
again you do: you cover the altar of Yahweh with tears, with weeping, and
with sighing, because he doesn't regard the offering any more, neither
receives it with good will at your hand. 2:14Yet you say, 'Why?' Because Yahweh
has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you
have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your
covenant. 2:15Did
he not make one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He
sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal
treacherously against the wife of his youth. 2:16For I hate divorce," says
Yahweh, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with
violence!' says Yahweh of Armies. "Therefore
take heed to your spirit, that you don't deal
treacherously. 2:17You
have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, 'How have we wearied him?'
In that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yahweh, and
he delights in them;' or 'Where is the God of justice?'

3:1"Behold, I send my messenger, and he
will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly
come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire,
behold, he comes!" says Yahweh of hosts. 3:2"But who can endure the day of
his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's
fire, and like launderer's soap; 3:3and
he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of
Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh
offerings in righteousness. 3:4Then
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh, as in the
days of old, and as in ancient years. 3:5I will come near to you to judgment;
and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the
adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the
hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the
foreigner of justice, and don't fear me," says Yahweh of Armies. 3:6"For I,
Yahweh, don't change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. 3:7From the days of
your fathers you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept
them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says Yahweh of Armies.
"But you say, 'How shall we return?' 3:8Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me!
But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings. 3:9You are cursed with the curse; for you
rob me, even this whole nation. 3:10Bring
the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and
test me now in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open you
the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be
room enough for. 3:11I
will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits
of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the
field," says Yahweh of Armies. 3:12"All nations shall call you
blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says Yahweh of Armies.

3:13"Your words have been stout against
me," says Yahweh. "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against you?' 3:14You have said,
'It is vain to serve God;' and 'What profit is it that we have kept his
charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies? 3:15Now we call the
proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt
God, and escape.' 3:16Then
those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and
heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared
Yahweh, and who honored his name. 3:17They
shall be mine," says Yahweh of Armies, "my own possession in the
day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who
serves him. 3:18Then
you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between
him who serves God and him who doesn't serve him.

4:1"For, behold, the day comes, it
burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be
stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up," says Yahweh of
Armies, "that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 4:2But to you who fear my name shall the
sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and
leap like calves of the stall. 4:3You
shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your
feet in the day that I make," says Yahweh of Armies.

4:4"Remember the law of Moses my
servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all
Israel, even statutes and ordinances. 4:5Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. 4:6He will turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come
and strike the earth with a curse."